I've been interested in a 4-Bay external
Hard Drive Enclosure with eSATA, FW800,
FW400 and USB. It also MUST have RAID 10.
RAID 0 and 1 is important BUT 10 is really
what I want. Most multi bay external HD
enclosures don't support RAID 10 so thats
a deal breaker. Another problem is most
enclosures like that require a pci-e card
which is also a deal breaker and last but
not least is price. $300 plus is also in the
neighborhood of a deal breaker.

I have been vacillating over the OWC
Qx2 HD enclosure. It does everything
I want BUT costs over $300 USD.

Well I stumbled over this StarTech.
It appears to do everything the
OWC does but is $100 USD cheaper.
It gets good reviews. Its just UGLY
as hell.

What do you think? Should I pull
the trigger or continue to vacillate.
I'm in no hurry. I won't NEED an
enclosure like that for another
year if I continue in my current
direction. Maybe they will go on
sale around Christmas._________________2011 Mac mini 2.7 GHz i7 with
16GB RAM, Samsung 512GB SSD
MacBook AIR 11 Inch
Mac mini, Model 1.1, 2.33 GHz C2D Proc
20" iMac G4 PPC

Last edited by billb on Mon Oct 29, 2012 12:14 am; edited 4 times in total

both the startech and the owc require a pci-e card to run sata/esata. if you want I will hold one of my 2 owc pro qx2's for you at a good price . ask me in a pm for details_________________2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

I would love to know the answer to this one too, I was looking at the OWC, but I didn't know you needed to use their specific card to use it. The eSATA mini hack won't be enough?
Thanks,
MW_________________Mac Mini 2009 Z0FX 2.26GHz 4GB SDRAM 320GB 7200 RPM, 8x Optical Drive

I would love to know the answer to this one too, I was looking at the OWC, but I didn't know you needed to use their specific card to use it. The eSATA mini hack won't be enough?
Thanks,
MW

I missed this question yesterday. Answer the 4 bay unit from owc will not work with the mac mini esata hack. the mini esata hack allows a 1 bay esata drive or a 2 bay sans digital esata drive. the raid engine in the owc qx2 works with fw800 or usb2 not esata. you need a card to get any and all 4bay enclosures to work with esata and a mac mini. the sansdigital 2 bay towerstor does allow esata hack to work with 2 drives. it allows up to 4tb in a raid0 or 2 tb in a raid1 . it is your best choice for speed and size. I have 4 of these along with 2 qx2 from owc. If anyone has a need for a sans digital to use with an esata hack pm me. Since I purchased the mac pro I have excess gear._________________2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

I would love to know the answer to this one too, I was looking at the OWC, but I didn't know you needed to use their specific card to use it. The eSATA mini hack won't be enough?
Thanks,
MW

I missed this question yesterday. Answer the 4 bay unit from owc will not work with the mac mini esata hack. the mini esata hack allows a 1 bay esata drive or a 2 bay sans digital esata drive. the raid engine in the owc qx2 works with fw800 or usb2 not esata. you need a card to get any and all 4bay enclosures to work with esata and a mac mini. the sansdigital 2 bay towerstor does allow esata hack to work with 2 drives. it allows up to 4tb in a raid0 or 2 tb in a raid1 . it is your best choice for speed and size. I have 4 of these along with 2 qx2 from owc. If anyone has a need for a sans digital to use with an esata hack pm me. Since I purchased the mac pro I have excess gear.

Hey guys, came to this thread late, sorry if answered elsewhere. Won't the esata hack work with any 4 or 5 bay enclosure (specifically Sans Digital) with "hardware" raid? The other units are software based, if I'm not mistaken. I, too, am looking for an enclosure with more space, as I have a growing media collection. I currently own the Sans Digital 2 bay Towerstor, using fw800. The 4 and 5 bay units support usb and esata, and usb would take forever to transfer large files. Thanks for any responses._________________Mac Pro 4,1 12GB ram
Samsung SSD 120GB boot, Intel SSD 80GB scratch, 10TB internal ZFS
Sans Digital 6TB Raid5, 2TB Raid0
NT Guardian Maximus 1TB Raid1, 500GB Raid0
OWC external Superdrive
An iPod for every occasion
iPhone 3g

The 2 bay towerstor works plug and boot with the mini esata hack as a ( roc ) raid on chip or hardware raid.
so you can boot with a 4tb volume.
the qx2 does not work with the esata. it will not boot. the qx2 will work with fw800.

this is a sans digital it is rebranded as rosewill. I am using it as jbod with the mac pro I have yet to test with the mini esata hack. if this works you would have up to 8 hdds or 16tb storage. read reviews of it it needs fans the stock fans are very loud. this would be a very good piece of gear with a man mini esata hack.

in fact you could use this with one mac mini double esata hack or 2 mac mini sing esata hacks. I mean to play with this next week._________________2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

okay even if it does not boot. if it works as an 8 bay jbod and your esata hack is a 1 esata hack. the rosewill would be able to have 4 drives online. you could use superduper to clone your drives you have one case not a boatload of cases. the rosewill will only act like a jbod. you still get esata speed.

I am just a bit busy this weekend. I have been using the rosewill with my mac pro and it works well. I only ask that you wait a bit for be to do the testing on monday.

basically the same unit. In both cases the jbod should be good in minis with no software or the pci e card. If true these can really turn mini's into a good piece of gear. yeah all drives are maxed at esata speed but 8 drives are 16tb.

if you clone drives;
1 to 5
2 to 6
3 to 7
4 to 8 you get pretty safe storage at good speeds.

the beauty is only 3 wires to do it.

2 esata and 1 power cord. it truly would be a nice solution. all your hopes of raid10 and 5 or 6 all depend on fw800. AS none will work with the esata hack been there done that. Since I purchased the rosewill with my macpro the ability to add 8tb and clone 8 tb is great. I also started rebuilding my mac mini double esata hack. I hope to work on it next week I would do a big write up at this link.

If you've been following this thread
you'll remember I've been interested
in a four Disc enclosure that is affordable
with RAID 10 (1+0) as well as RAID 1
and RAID 0. RAID 5 wouldn't hurt but
not having it is not a deal breaker.

I had posted a link to a StarTech enclosure
that appeared to fit my requirements. moobile
was very helpful and pointed out that the
StarTech isn't RAID 10 but was mis-
represented and was actually RAID 0+1.

Well $300+ for the OWC Qx2 enclosue
is just to expensive for my needs.
It would go on sale occasionally for
an "Open Box" or a "Referb" from
time to time for $249 to $279 but
that still breaks the budget for a four
bay external enclosure.

Well, I found an enclosure that looks
exactly like the StarTech but is labeled
"Mediasonic HFR2-S3B". Looks are
deceiving because its has RAID 10
not RAID 01. The Instructions I
downloaded from Mediasonics web site
for the enclosure verifies this as well
as several YouTube videos posted
buy new owners of the Mediasonic.

I've had my eye on the Mediasonic
at NewEgg for a few months now
and I picked one up for $119 + free
shipping on one of their eMail Blasts.
It typically sells for $199, but.....well
thats still a deal breaker, $119 is
perfect. Amazon also sells it for $199, BTW.

It arrived today and I must say looks
are deceiving. The pictures and videos
on the web make it look like that early
1990's portable refrigerator/warmer
that came with Toyota mini vans.
My neighbor had one. Well, it looks
much better than that but it still isn't
as classy looking as that Qx2. Looks
in this case weren't a deal breaker.

I don't have enough Disc's to fill it up, yet
and I won't need it till probably the end
of the year so I have time to pickup
a couple more Hitachi 2TB Discs for
$109 each, on sale, of course.[edit] OWC
just had a sale, $99.00 ea. no tax, free
shipping, bought two.....cool!

Its a good thing I started shopping early,
I easily saved a couple hundred bucks.
If anyone is interested in this enclosure
get on NewEggs "Blast" eMail list. You'll
get one or two emails a day with very
very good offers on some of their popular
merchandise._________________2011 Mac mini 2.7 GHz i7 with
16GB RAM, Samsung 512GB SSD
MacBook AIR 11 Inch
Mac mini, Model 1.1, 2.33 GHz C2D Proc
20" iMac G4 PPC

Last edited by billb on Mon May 07, 2012 8:34 pm; edited 4 times in total

With the bad weather in the northeast I have not done the final double esata hack build. I have one with an unrefined look and now a really nice piece of gear has come out from sans digital it holds five 2.5 inch hdds and has an esata out option that is seen as one drive. I have a sans digital 2bay ts2ct and for now makes a great raid0 to the mini esata hack.

they also need testing with OWC's iMac esata hack. they should work with both and if they do both machine would be killer by the way a saw a very fast video on youtube of an esata hack with a 2010 mini. just 1 not 2.

it is a uk clone of the sans digital 5 bay units. this is what would be the best attachment you can have to the new iMac esata hack from owc. owc needs to carry a version of this to sell with its imac esata hack_________________2010 Mm 2.4 C2D oem 320gb hdd 8gb ram
2012Mm base 2.5 with 16gb ram diy fusion drive
2012Mm quad with 8gb ram oem 1tb hdd

Yah, I saw that eSATA hack the other day
and not only is it to fast but it doesn't show
enough detail._________________2011 Mac mini 2.7 GHz i7 with
16GB RAM, Samsung 512GB SSD
MacBook AIR 11 Inch
Mac mini, Model 1.1, 2.33 GHz C2D Proc
20" iMac G4 PPC

Ok, an update on the Mediasonic enclosure.
The damn thing is built like a tank. Its extremely
well made. It just happens to be styled in a
kind of tacky way. The Japanese did a great
job of taking our technology and shrinking it
down, then improving it. When the Chinese
eventually get it right.........lookout. Maybe
they could hire some Italians to design their
products.

Anyway, I just have two 2TB hard drives to
drop into the Mediasonic. I've chosen to STRIPE
the 4TB's. Currently I have 1.75 TB's of EyeTV
captures stored on an OWC two Disc enclosure
so I'm cloning those EyeTV captures onto the
Mediasonic. Their both hooked up via FW400.

I'm using SuperDuper to do the job and I'll
update this thread to let you know how long
it took. BTW, the flashing blue & purple lights
on the front of the Mediasonic are pretty cool.
I thought they would also be tacky but their
not. If your putting this enclosure in a dimmed
room where you watch TV or sleep you may find
them to bright.

I suspect I'll be very pleased with this Mediasonic
and I still can't believe I paid only $119.